Norovirus Risk Increased With Raw Oysters

Could eating raw oysters increase the risk of the norovirus?

New findings published in the journal Applied and Environmental Biology reveal that many of the world's strains of the main norovirus can be found in oysters.

"More than 80 percent of human norovirus genotypes were detected in oyster samples or oyster-related outbreaks," said Dr. Yongjie Wang, a professor in the college of food science and technology at Shanghai Ocean University, in a press release. "The results highlight oysters' important role in the persistence of norovirus in the environment, and its transmission to humans, and they demonstrate the need for surveillance of human norovirus in oyster samples."

During the study, researchers reviewed 1,077 oyster-related norovirus sequences of the GenBank and Noronet databases collected between 1983 and 2014 that were studied for genetic diversity and geographic distribution over time.

Findings revealed that close to 80 percent of the samples could be found in oysters in coastal waters, suggesting that some of the explanation could be human waste expelled by coastlines. This could cause great as oysters expelled along the coastline may have picked up the norovirus. 

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